The announcement follows the decision by Simplot Australia not to renew its licence agreement to manufacture and market Lean Cuisine in Australia from end November 2019.

Simplot has manufactured and marketed Lean Cuisine under licence since 2009.

Nestlé is the world’s largest food company

Nestlé is the world’s largest food company which is $27 billion operation in the US.

It has been active in repositioning its business for much of the last year in an effort to stoke growth, focusing its capital spending efforts on high-growth food and beverage categories such as coffee, pet care, infant nutrition and bottled water.

The Swiss-based company has a broad portfolio that includes everything from Lean Cuisine and Toll House chocolate chips to Dreyer’s ice cream and S.Pellegrino sparkling water.

In the last year, Nestlé ​has invested in an accelerator program to support emerging food and agriculture startups and rolled out a pair of new products — a frozen food line called Wildscape and Outsiders pizza that pays tribute to under-respected regional styles — to market in less than nine months, much faster than products are usually introduced.

Nestlé also bulked up its exposure in plant-based foods after it snapped up Sweet Earth for an undisclosed sum last September.